Valois-Fortier adds World silver to his vault

The World Judo Championships are underway in Chelyabinsk, Russia and Canada has its first medal via Antoine Valois-Fortier./p>

The London 2012 bronze medallist picked up a World silver on Thursday, in a final against Georgian judoka Avtandil Tchrikishvili. Their matches between now and the next Olympics could all be previews of Rio 2016 in the men’s 81kg category given the form and consistency of the two competitors.

On the International Judo Federation website Fortier said “I am so happy” and spoke of the preparations ahead of Chelyabinsk.

“Several months ago, with my coach, we focussed everything on the worlds. It was my goal to be on the podium today. And when you reach your goal, you can only be happy. I had several good victories today and that’s just incredible.”

On his way to the podium Valois-Fortier beat the defending World Champion Loic Pietri of France in the semifinals. His other wins came in Pool D against Brazil’s Victor Penalber, Abdelaziz Ben Ammar of Tunisia and Shukhartjon Arslanov of Uzbekistan.

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